A Vinyl Bar in Shibuya, a startup founded by former Spotify innovation head Mauhan M. Zonoozy, has secured $5.5 million in a pre-seed funding round. Investors include Mantis VC, SV Angel, Boxgroup, Quiet Capital, Remarkable Ventures, Common Metal, Gold House, Liquid 2 Ventures, Breakers VC, and Collaborative Fund.
Dawn Ostroff, the former chief content and advertising business officer at Spotify, has joined the company as an advisor. Zonoozy, who previously founded the startup Bubbl, left Spotify in 2024 to focus on developing interactive music creation tools that move beyond passive streaming consumption.
The company releases its tools as individual digital experiments. Current offerings include the Speed Surfer browser extension, the Usersound audio username generator, the Stacks stem player, the Drops marble-based sequencer, and the Sampler tool for YouTube video conversion.
The startup also operates an iOS application called bop, which allows users to arrange instruments and effects in a grid to create mixes for export to social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram. Development is currently underway for a multiplayer version of the app.
While the company has introduced a prompt-based feature for sound creation, Zonoozy stated that the team avoids integrating AI into every aspect of their products. The firm plans to launch a musical sandbox mixer later this year that enables users to build custom instruments.
